I liked Damon's comments about Pastor post qualifying - when the presenter dude said "what do you think about Williams having two inexperienced drivers" - and Damon replied saying something like: well maldonado isn't exaclty a rookie - he did 4 seasons in GP2, and finished as champion, he is a highly experienced, competitive driver...

FerreiraHappy with the results, they are clearly better than I was expecting.
Important question to those with better technical knowledge than me... Do you think we have sorted out the issues with Race starts we experienced last season?

Don't wanna see Pastor 11th after tomorrow's second corner...

I think we had bad starts because of the Cosworth engine. When we had the Toyota we were extremely fast off the line. And all the Renault powered cars always have been very good off the line.

Ha Ha! i think we've just seen the template for Bruno's excuses for the rest of the season - now that he's realised he's not as gifted Pastor. So long as he does better than Naka. He should. no one can do worse than Naka... can they?

So long as he doesn't whinge like Rubens.

Good qually for us but i can't hep but feel disappointed that we're not line astern 8 and 9th on the grid.

Joe SawardThe HRT team has failed to qualify for the Australian GP. The FIA Stewards were asked to consider a request from the team to allow Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan to start the race, despite the two having failed to set a lap time within 107 percent of the fastest Q1 time. The stewards decided that the performance was not sufficient to warrant a waiving of the regulation.

Gwannibruno said explicitly that he did not deliver today, that increases our confidence for the next future..

I thought Bruno was ok today; he didn't get as much from the car as he hoped and he admitted that it was down to him to improve. Thats a pretty mature view to take and bodes well for the rest of the season. Pastor was great and did an outstanding job and still believes he can improve. I'm beginning to become a fan of Pastor and think he will be good for Williams.

1) Wasn't qualifying entertaining? Like everyone else, I was trying to get a read on the season pecking order in Q1 and Q2 but the picture twisted and turned by the second. Having spent the night partying, and the morning working I feel fully recharged now!

2) Isn't it great to see Ferrari struggling! Enjoy it whilst it lasts!

3) Aren't we in for an unpredictable fight at the front this season? Redbull, Ferrari both struggling, Lotus and Mercedes with great potential.

4) Who would have predicted Maldonado would have beaten Ferrari and the rest of the midfield by such a margin in what is such a tight midfield? He clearly outperformed the car. Well done indeed, Pastor. I didn't expect to be praising our drivers this year. Praise where praise is due.

5) The FW33 was not an anomaly. All this talk of the FW34 building on the FW32 is nonsense. It is no coincidence Pastor set his best qualifying result since the British GP last year- the last race no EBD was allowed (!) I am optimistic about the FW34.

6) I seem to recall predicting 2 months ago a scenario where Williams gave it's drivers a car to fight for points, only for Pastor to qualify 7th and Bruno 15th (ok I was slightly out with that...)

In the race, I predicted Senna to have a slow race (an off weekend) whilst Pastor loses his front wing at the first corner before having good race pace and finishing 11th behind the Force India's. Praise for Pastor, 0 points, a good car let down by flakey driving.

I hope the second part of my prediction is proved wrong! I don't want to be berating drivers all year.

In such a tight midfield, to be 4 tenths off your teammate is very much Nakajima territory. Bruno was known to have "off" weekends at Renault, although I can just as easily see him reverse the roles with Pastor in upcoming races as his qualifying lap in Belgium last year was impressive. His consistently decent laptimes in testing was impressive too, I hope this is just an "off" weekend and he gets out of the habit with more experience. (or even better, that he just had an "off" qualifying) I don't want to see both drivers selling a good car short.

7) ROLF @ J4ck's picture. Effort!

8) If Mercedes benefit from a clever DRS system in qualifying, will that make them fair game in the race? I like Wurz' prediction very much that Williams have the same race pace- I just hope Pastor can keep his head and his tyres together and ride the wave. This FW34 seems to have the potential pace for a double points score. Lets not give teams like Force India an open goal.

4) The FW33 was not an anomaly. All this talk of the FW34 building on the FW32 is nonsense. It is no coincidence Pastor set his best qualifying result since the British GP last year- the last race no EBD was allowed (!)

Yes it was. The car didn't work because it was fundamentally flawed, and from a performance angle from what we've seen so far, this car is exactly what the FW33 was supposed to be, whilst the FW33 was a lot slower than expected. Thus, an anomaly.

Bruno has potential but I think his family cutting short his earlier career, while understandable at the time, did him a great disservice regarding his future in racing so it will probably take a while to realize that potential.

MikeF1Yes it was. The car didn't work because it was fundamentally flawed, and from a performance angle from what we've seen so far, this car is exactly what the FW33 was supposed to be, whilst the FW33 was a lot slower than expected. Thus, an anomaly.

And yet how was it possible for Pastor to do better in Britain last year if the car was fundamentally flawed? What exactly was Williams' fundamental flaw last year? Their qualifying positions were similar last season to what we have just seen.

Just look at how the EBD ban has transformed/closed up the field. RedBull having gone from dominant to plain behind, Ferrari in utter disarray. The FW33 was giving a lot away in terms of sheer pace due to not being able to hot-blow the diffuser.

In terms of qualifying performance, the FW33 was very similar to what we have just seen. What was so depressing was the inevitable slip back out of the points on race day due to tyre management. This was, I believe, down to;
1) the engine power delivery
2) the lack of grip at the rear resulting in poor traction- due to no EBD.

Both issues have IMO been eliminated before the FW34 ever turned a wheel. I hope the race will prove this theory right.

crusty_bread
In terms of qualifying performance, the FW33 was very similar to what we have just seen. What was so depressing was the inevitable slip back out of the points on race day due to tyre management. This was, I believe, down to;
1) the engine power delivery
2) the lack of grip at the rear resulting in poor traction- due to no EBD.

Both issues have IMO been eliminated before the FW34 ever turned a wheel. I hope the race will prove this theory right.

This will be the key thing for tomorrow, to see if the slipback in the race has been erradicated.

It'd be great if we get some points tomorrow, but I'm not going to get to excitied after the showing here. Williams tends to be strong at Australia - even if they haven't managed to deliver the results they were capable of (2006, 2009, 2011). I'm going to reserve judgement till after the next couple of races

And yes Crusty, i'[m sharing your joy at seeing Ferrari struggle, Alonso's little tantrum because the marshall wouldn't push him:0 suprised he couldn't get himself out of the gravel, that car's akin to a tractor

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